Welcome to the peaks! Where are they? Everywhere; they’re all that’s left. The surface has dried up, withered, and dust permeates the air. Mankind has moved to higher altitudes, where the air is still breathable. In a world with such limited land to live on, imperialism is at its height; more space equals more resources, and there are only so many of those in the world. Through this conflict, three superpowers have emerged: The great nation of Montagane, the Republic of Claud Gren, and the Azure Coalition. They compete for control and influence, with skirmishes break out on a regular basis.
Recently, however, the city-state of Luthair within the Azure Coalition decided to simply not, when they discovered the hard way that they had settled on a volcano. To make up for losses, the coalition has enacted increasingly aggressive expansion policies, and is generating friction in the three-way struggle. And with this event, the power struggle has now escalated to a point beyond what has been normally dealt with, and the current world’s civilization will not go into the future unchanged.
Governance
Government Presence - 4T
With the superpowers of the world entering an age of expansion, government actions are something people deal with on a daily basis. Whether it’s the government drafting soldiers for its military or rationing out supplies, the increased military action directly translates to an increase of government interference with everyday life.
Montagane’s monarchy maintains an above average presence for their populace. While the people generally live the lives that were lived in the civilizations before, small differences between then and now for exist. There are soldiers more frequently stationed around the cities, the bureaucracy favors the upper class heavily over lower and middle classes, and there is an uneven resource distribution among the nation. In fact, there are some families in the upper-class who have direct connections to the monarchy itself, with some using this advantage for good or malicious intent.
In Claud Gren, the members of the Ministry, the republic's ruling body, are generally wealthy individuals with either control of major businesses or control of some media organization. As a result, the majority of Claud Gren’s population is reliant on the members of the government for supplies or news. Outside of the individual members influence, the government also maintains the military, a major institution for the republic.
The smaller city-states not yet under a larger umbrella are often still directly influenced by their presence. It is in their benefit to keep the three in balance, whatever the cost; the last thing these city-states want is destruction when one nation steps in to contest the settlement of the other. While the flying city of Grey Smoke is secure in its balancing act, having secured its indispensable trade services, others are not so lucky. Some are simply pushed around by the big three as they play games of chicken in their disputes.
Rule of Law - 2
With tensions between superpowers heating up and military forces amassing, protection against crime has become fairly weak. Constables patrol the streets, but they can only do so much. While while they can certainly step in on what they see and check in on reports, most stations lack the manpower to track down many uncaught criminals.
While active crime may be too much to effectively deal with, these nations are very good with regulations and is how they’ve survived this long in overall less-than hospitable terrain. These regulations mainly focus on use and transport of natural resources, ensuring producers are not sloppy enough to lose shipments due to negligence; they get enough of that from pirates without needing to add those losses to the mix.
Pirates make bolder moves as they sail the sky, looking for travelers or merchants to prey upon. Some areas who wish to jump on opportunity, such as Claud Gren, have these pirates employed by wealthier citizens to target their political and social rivals. It is even rumored that the nations have begun striking deals to set them upon their enemies, though proof has yet to be found. With such powerful backers supporting piracy, it is unlikely the trade will ever disappear.
Social Services - 1
In this day and age, you get what you work for. Or, in some individuals’ case, what you inherit. The closest one can come to social services are benefits given by a wealthy employer or other such benefactor. Oftentimes, the only upkeep of a city comes from building owners maintaining the area around them or those affluent enough to dedicate land to the public, in their name, of course, displayed in shining bronze lettering. How each superpower handles their social services varies a bit, but the resulting quantity of it always remains at bare minimum.
Montagane’s social services are unsurprisingly shabby. While there are a few upper-class philanthropists who genuinely help the ones below through forms of charity, most other families prefer to just barely sponsor places of need for the sake of face. In fact, there are even some corrupt families who hold certain places hostage by forcing owners to comply with a sponsor’s “needs”, lest they pull the monetary plug and let the place die. While there are some within the monarchy themselves who know about this, they have trouble stopping it due to the fact that they can’t step in unless a direction violation of law is committed. Naturally, these corrupt sponsors happily abuse this fact and frequently skirt the line.
In Claud Gren social services are limited to labor or military positions being easily available for those with no other options. The wealthy class that rules the republics use the lower class as a cheap source of manpower, the very worst off are forced into scavenging in The Dust or working within mines or factories. The republics offer of citizenship for military service ensures that those from outside Claud Grens heartland sign up in droves to receive basic rights within the nation.
Economics
Economic Strength - 2
While the world is a far cry from desperate, surpluses are not commonplace. The unreachable upper classes retain the power and influence to uphold the wealth gap, and the world looks on with envy as they live day-to-day and month-to-month, hoping their nation’s stresses never trickle down to them. As a result of the upper class having a dominant hold on the wealth flow, the middle and lower classes tend to have an inconsistent economy. Therefore, it recently hasn’t been too uncommon for a stroke of bad luck to hit a middle-class resident’s wealth, which results in them gradually falling into a lower class status. This is a common, or at least similar, trait that all nations share, and an upward trend doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.
For Montagane, those in lower classes end up living in areas of cities that might as well be shanties. Without the cash flow that even the middle class has, it’s hard for those living there to even afford consistent steam access. While there are the few benevolent upper class-men working to help improve living conditions and resource access (such as electricity and more steam access), it still proves to be a challenge with the large amount of those living in these conditions. The middle class does fare better with resources, as the residents can basically use them as needed. However, the nation’s costs of these resources are somewhat higher than other places, so they can’t be used liberally.
Claud Grens mountainous terrain greatly limits its access to basic necessities. With no big plateaus or other such locations to use as fields, the republic has been forced to grow what they can in mountainous conditions. As such, The diet of the lower class of the republic mostly consists of vegetables such as rice, spinach, potatoes, and carrots, along with some animals that can be raised in mountainous areas, such as goat and deer, though meat is a small part of their diet. Those that can afford to will have more luxuries food, such as beef or wheat, flown in. Most of the republics wealth comes from the plentiful metals and stones from its mountain range, as well as its technological advances.
Wealth Distribution - 2
What resources a nation possesses are primarily owned by the nations upper class, who own what little means of producing useful resources that exist. Those without are utterly reliant on purchasing from the upper class, giving a society’s elite a tight grip on the economy and greatly limiting upwards mobility.
And that hasn’t even spoken of the lower classes. If by any means (either by birth or by financial loss) someone ends up down below, there is next to no hope of return. If there are any rags-to-riches stories, they would typically happen once a decade. For instances like the monarchy of Montagane, most residents of the lower class usually end up in small service jobs such as waiters or factory worker for a majority or even the rest of their lives.
Agriculture and Trade - 4↓
A thorn in the side of each of the three superpowers, none of them have managed to secure lands such that they can produce all of their needs, let alone desired amenities. With such violent disputes amongst themselves, direct trade deals are a rarity. Thankfully, a solution exists, and it’s floating right above their heads. Grey Smoke: the floating city of trade. A conduit to many corners of the world, Grey Smoke oftens serves as a middle man, doing business with all who seek to trade.
With piracy on the rise, trade is starting to decline. The airspace around Grey Smoke is generally protected, but anywhere beyond that is a guessing game. Direct interference in trade is hard to pull off, seeing as the nations still depend on each other. Merchant escorts are more on edge returning from trips than venturing out on them; they’re convinced that’s when the enemy will come for them.
Within Claud Gren the republics has built a shipping network between its different territories. Trade has been pushed as a way to spread wealth throughout the republic, though the amount of piracy happening within the nation makes is risky for those without the wealth or connections to defend themselves from or pay off pirates to attempt trading, widening the gap between the wealthy class and everyone else and driving even more people to piracy in an attempt to make ends meet.
Social Relations
Race Relations - 4
Racism stemmed in large from nationalism of developing nations. With the complete restructuring of sovereign nations following the calamity, nations became melting pots of ethnicity, causing that driving force of racism to fall away. This could not completely erase presence of racism, there are plenty of factors and such ingrained prejudice dies hard, but at this point, it’s safe to assume the average person doesn’t really care.
In Claud Gren, where a number of different races exist under one government, there is very little discrimination on racial grounds. While those born in Claud Grens heartland and granted citizenship with no other conditions, those born outside are granted citizenship after a period of military service, and once citizens there is no real difference in treatment under the law. In addition, anyone born to a citizen is also a citizen unconditionally, so in territories that have been part of the republic for some time most of the population will be citizens. What little discrimination that exists is mostly culturally based, as the government doesn’t force its culture on conquered area, so some areas of the republic will consider others to be a bit backwards.
Class Relations - 1
Imperialism is good for business, and so those in the business have never seen finer times. In some sense, the rules do not apply to these people. It is well known they employ less than savory individuals to do their dirty work, and that they are not always in compliance with government regulations, but proving that is another matter entirely and they’re far too important to the status quo to go to such lengths in removing them.
In a world of such limited resources, these people cannot exist without impoverishing those around them. Many can do nothing but try and make a living for themselves in this world, sometimes just barely. There are those who can live more comfortably, but that is not a major step up.
Some rare few are able to break into the middle ground between those above and those below. These are oftentimes those who have gained wealthy patronage for their work, or those who have freelanced themselves into indispensable services. The latter is always a dangerous place to be, though. What happens when someone else butts into your territory? This is not a stable space, and people can leave it easier than they entered it.
Gender Relations - 3
Gender relations have relatively remained the same since the mass migration to the peaks. Women have broken into the workforce, but at the mercy of prejudice and an overwhelming male majority. Every field has their reason why the women belong elsewhere, and those that stand up for them can’t help but fall into bias elsewhere.
This hasn’t stopped women from forging onwards. While denting the system is a difficult task, there are many who are doing well for themselves, finding opportunity in all places. Such tasks are not always easy in this world, however, and sometimes that means stepping around propriety, or even the law, to move forwards.
Sexual Orientation Relations - 3
Relations around people’s orientations have also largely remained the same ever since the dust kicked in. While there are plenty of people around who have accepted that difference in gender preference is a normal occurrence, there are just as many who despise the mere existence of the concept.
However, things have begun to slightly complicate with the rise of different religions. With the creation of multiple different religions also came with more complex ideas on how to treat the existence of different sexualities. Some believe to indulge in sexual freedom, others have an extremist views of intolerance. And then there’s the occasional religion that believes in peace and indifference among all.
Cultural Influences
Military - 5
With resources so central to all else, defense of said resources is a necessity. In addition, imperialist clashes of the superpowers often result in skirmishes of one sort or another. With such conditions, the military flaunts itself in all facets of life. No city has a street where a man in uniform cannot be seen walking by, whether they be deployable soldiers or constables on the homefront.
In addition to how most of the powers prefer a high defensive military presence, said military also gets a lot of exercise in general from the current general resource struggle. Each superpower is willing to take full advantage of their might whenever the need for a skirmish arises. And with the commonality of such skirmishes, it can always be expected that new recruitment campaigns begin shortly after the end of them. Whether it be offense or defense, there isn’t much downtime for those in the army.
Religion - 4
As a result of the seperated nature of the worlds nations, dozens of religions have sprung into existence, with each nation generally having its own system of beliefs. This is often a source of conflict between nations, as a rise in patriotism leads to most nations being fairly closed minded when it comes to other beliefs.
Claud Gren’s religion is one where every emotion is considered a deity, and experiencing an emotion is seen as that deity touching the individual for a moment. This is one of the reasons for the nations glorification of emotions and of showing emotions, as attempting to hold in or hide emotions is seen as impious.
Technology - 4
We exist in a golden age of technology. At some corner of every neighborhood, someone is tinkering, hoping to break through the crowd and obtain the employ of their government, or patronship of those in power.
Steam is the major power source for technology, with nations accessing massive underground reservoirs to provide the water needed to power themselves. The use of steam as a source of power makes travel difficult, as airships need to carry enough of it to power themselves, requiring them to make frequent stops to replenish themselves. However, water is plentiful in most places for it to be very cheap.
As a result of the complex needs to efficiently use the steam as a power source, many inventions and products that utilize it have functions closer to contraptions than standard mechanisms.
Arts and Culture - 3↑
With conflict between the superpowers escalating, patriotism is on the rise and these nations’ cultures are flourishing in defiance of one another.
In Claud Gren, the culture is one of bright colors, building are often vibrantly colored, covered with banners and decorations, or both. The architecture of the city is reminiscent of the Rococo style, with a focus on elegance and curving shapes rather than harsh edges. The nation has recently begun to embrace the performing arts, with plays and concert halls being a frequent source of entertainment for its citizens. The people embrace a culture of expression and passion, where one's feelings are put out in the open. As a result arguments, both verbal and physical, are common and grievances are usually settled immediately - and sometimes permanently - in duels.
The Azure Coalition indulges in what they call Game of Houses. Everything is for political gain. Even among the lower classes, politics is politics and they all have their own agendas to push. Information is power, even currency at times, and inferences come out of even the simplest acts. Many outsiders find it nauseating and impossible to live with, but the the coalition thrives on it, both government and society.
Montagane’s main source of culture is mainly on the middle and upper class levels. The nation is built with a french flavor. Main colors seem to lean towards a white/white-gray palette. As for the culture of performing arts, it is a very popular entertainment industry within the nation. Like other places, concerts and theatre are the most common. Even on occasion, old classics from the days gone will be used/performed for the audience out of vintage value. They are also starting to rediscover the art of movies, which the ability to previously do so was lost when contact with electricity became lost through the migration from the dust. Currently, the people of Montagane have begun to figure out how to project films with the newer electricity sources they have.
Recently, however, the city-state of Luthair within the Azure Coalition decided to simply not, when they discovered the hard way that they had settled on a volcano. To make up for losses, the coalition has enacted increasingly aggressive expansion policies, and is generating friction in the three-way struggle. And with this event, the power struggle has now escalated to a point beyond what has been normally dealt with, and the current world’s civilization will not go into the future unchanged.
Governance
Government Presence - 4T
With the superpowers of the world entering an age of expansion, government actions are something people deal with on a daily basis. Whether it’s the government drafting soldiers for its military or rationing out supplies, the increased military action directly translates to an increase of government interference with everyday life.Montagane’s monarchy maintains an above average presence for their populace. While the people generally live the lives that were lived in the civilizations before, small differences between then and now for exist. There are soldiers more frequently stationed around the cities, the bureaucracy favors the upper class heavily over lower and middle classes, and there is an uneven resource distribution among the nation. In fact, there are some families in the upper-class who have direct connections to the monarchy itself, with some using this advantage for good or malicious intent.
In Claud Gren, the members of the Ministry, the republic's ruling body, are generally wealthy individuals with either control of major businesses or control of some media organization. As a result, the majority of Claud Gren’s population is reliant on the members of the government for supplies or news. Outside of the individual members influence, the government also maintains the military, a major institution for the republic.
The smaller city-states not yet under a larger umbrella are often still directly influenced by their presence. It is in their benefit to keep the three in balance, whatever the cost; the last thing these city-states want is destruction when one nation steps in to contest the settlement of the other. While the flying city of Grey Smoke is secure in its balancing act, having secured its indispensable trade services, others are not so lucky. Some are simply pushed around by the big three as they play games of chicken in their disputes.
Rule of Law - 2
With tensions between superpowers heating up and military forces amassing, protection against crime has become fairly weak. Constables patrol the streets, but they can only do so much. While while they can certainly step in on what they see and check in on reports, most stations lack the manpower to track down many uncaught criminals.While active crime may be too much to effectively deal with, these nations are very good with regulations and is how they’ve survived this long in overall less-than hospitable terrain. These regulations mainly focus on use and transport of natural resources, ensuring producers are not sloppy enough to lose shipments due to negligence; they get enough of that from pirates without needing to add those losses to the mix.
Pirates make bolder moves as they sail the sky, looking for travelers or merchants to prey upon. Some areas who wish to jump on opportunity, such as Claud Gren, have these pirates employed by wealthier citizens to target their political and social rivals. It is even rumored that the nations have begun striking deals to set them upon their enemies, though proof has yet to be found. With such powerful backers supporting piracy, it is unlikely the trade will ever disappear.
Social Services - 1
In this day and age, you get what you work for. Or, in some individuals’ case, what you inherit. The closest one can come to social services are benefits given by a wealthy employer or other such benefactor. Oftentimes, the only upkeep of a city comes from building owners maintaining the area around them or those affluent enough to dedicate land to the public, in their name, of course, displayed in shining bronze lettering. How each superpower handles their social services varies a bit, but the resulting quantity of it always remains at bare minimum.Montagane’s social services are unsurprisingly shabby. While there are a few upper-class philanthropists who genuinely help the ones below through forms of charity, most other families prefer to just barely sponsor places of need for the sake of face. In fact, there are even some corrupt families who hold certain places hostage by forcing owners to comply with a sponsor’s “needs”, lest they pull the monetary plug and let the place die. While there are some within the monarchy themselves who know about this, they have trouble stopping it due to the fact that they can’t step in unless a direction violation of law is committed. Naturally, these corrupt sponsors happily abuse this fact and frequently skirt the line.
In Claud Gren social services are limited to labor or military positions being easily available for those with no other options. The wealthy class that rules the republics use the lower class as a cheap source of manpower, the very worst off are forced into scavenging in The Dust or working within mines or factories. The republics offer of citizenship for military service ensures that those from outside Claud Grens heartland sign up in droves to receive basic rights within the nation.
Economics
Economic Strength - 2
While the world is a far cry from desperate, surpluses are not commonplace. The unreachable upper classes retain the power and influence to uphold the wealth gap, and the world looks on with envy as they live day-to-day and month-to-month, hoping their nation’s stresses never trickle down to them. As a result of the upper class having a dominant hold on the wealth flow, the middle and lower classes tend to have an inconsistent economy. Therefore, it recently hasn’t been too uncommon for a stroke of bad luck to hit a middle-class resident’s wealth, which results in them gradually falling into a lower class status. This is a common, or at least similar, trait that all nations share, and an upward trend doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.For Montagane, those in lower classes end up living in areas of cities that might as well be shanties. Without the cash flow that even the middle class has, it’s hard for those living there to even afford consistent steam access. While there are the few benevolent upper class-men working to help improve living conditions and resource access (such as electricity and more steam access), it still proves to be a challenge with the large amount of those living in these conditions. The middle class does fare better with resources, as the residents can basically use them as needed. However, the nation’s costs of these resources are somewhat higher than other places, so they can’t be used liberally.
Claud Grens mountainous terrain greatly limits its access to basic necessities. With no big plateaus or other such locations to use as fields, the republic has been forced to grow what they can in mountainous conditions. As such, The diet of the lower class of the republic mostly consists of vegetables such as rice, spinach, potatoes, and carrots, along with some animals that can be raised in mountainous areas, such as goat and deer, though meat is a small part of their diet. Those that can afford to will have more luxuries food, such as beef or wheat, flown in. Most of the republics wealth comes from the plentiful metals and stones from its mountain range, as well as its technological advances.
Wealth Distribution - 2
What resources a nation possesses are primarily owned by the nations upper class, who own what little means of producing useful resources that exist. Those without are utterly reliant on purchasing from the upper class, giving a society’s elite a tight grip on the economy and greatly limiting upwards mobility.And that hasn’t even spoken of the lower classes. If by any means (either by birth or by financial loss) someone ends up down below, there is next to no hope of return. If there are any rags-to-riches stories, they would typically happen once a decade. For instances like the monarchy of Montagane, most residents of the lower class usually end up in small service jobs such as waiters or factory worker for a majority or even the rest of their lives.
Agriculture and Trade - 4↓
A thorn in the side of each of the three superpowers, none of them have managed to secure lands such that they can produce all of their needs, let alone desired amenities. With such violent disputes amongst themselves, direct trade deals are a rarity. Thankfully, a solution exists, and it’s floating right above their heads. Grey Smoke: the floating city of trade. A conduit to many corners of the world, Grey Smoke oftens serves as a middle man, doing business with all who seek to trade.With piracy on the rise, trade is starting to decline. The airspace around Grey Smoke is generally protected, but anywhere beyond that is a guessing game. Direct interference in trade is hard to pull off, seeing as the nations still depend on each other. Merchant escorts are more on edge returning from trips than venturing out on them; they’re convinced that’s when the enemy will come for them.
Within Claud Gren the republics has built a shipping network between its different territories. Trade has been pushed as a way to spread wealth throughout the republic, though the amount of piracy happening within the nation makes is risky for those without the wealth or connections to defend themselves from or pay off pirates to attempt trading, widening the gap between the wealthy class and everyone else and driving even more people to piracy in an attempt to make ends meet.
Social Relations
Race Relations - 4
Racism stemmed in large from nationalism of developing nations. With the complete restructuring of sovereign nations following the calamity, nations became melting pots of ethnicity, causing that driving force of racism to fall away. This could not completely erase presence of racism, there are plenty of factors and such ingrained prejudice dies hard, but at this point, it’s safe to assume the average person doesn’t really care.In Claud Gren, where a number of different races exist under one government, there is very little discrimination on racial grounds. While those born in Claud Grens heartland and granted citizenship with no other conditions, those born outside are granted citizenship after a period of military service, and once citizens there is no real difference in treatment under the law. In addition, anyone born to a citizen is also a citizen unconditionally, so in territories that have been part of the republic for some time most of the population will be citizens. What little discrimination that exists is mostly culturally based, as the government doesn’t force its culture on conquered area, so some areas of the republic will consider others to be a bit backwards.
Class Relations - 1
Imperialism is good for business, and so those in the business have never seen finer times. In some sense, the rules do not apply to these people. It is well known they employ less than savory individuals to do their dirty work, and that they are not always in compliance with government regulations, but proving that is another matter entirely and they’re far too important to the status quo to go to such lengths in removing them.In a world of such limited resources, these people cannot exist without impoverishing those around them. Many can do nothing but try and make a living for themselves in this world, sometimes just barely. There are those who can live more comfortably, but that is not a major step up.
Some rare few are able to break into the middle ground between those above and those below. These are oftentimes those who have gained wealthy patronage for their work, or those who have freelanced themselves into indispensable services. The latter is always a dangerous place to be, though. What happens when someone else butts into your territory? This is not a stable space, and people can leave it easier than they entered it.
Gender Relations - 3
Gender relations have relatively remained the same since the mass migration to the peaks. Women have broken into the workforce, but at the mercy of prejudice and an overwhelming male majority. Every field has their reason why the women belong elsewhere, and those that stand up for them can’t help but fall into bias elsewhere.This hasn’t stopped women from forging onwards. While denting the system is a difficult task, there are many who are doing well for themselves, finding opportunity in all places. Such tasks are not always easy in this world, however, and sometimes that means stepping around propriety, or even the law, to move forwards.
Sexual Orientation Relations - 3
Relations around people’s orientations have also largely remained the same ever since the dust kicked in. While there are plenty of people around who have accepted that difference in gender preference is a normal occurrence, there are just as many who despise the mere existence of the concept.However, things have begun to slightly complicate with the rise of different religions. With the creation of multiple different religions also came with more complex ideas on how to treat the existence of different sexualities. Some believe to indulge in sexual freedom, others have an extremist views of intolerance. And then there’s the occasional religion that believes in peace and indifference among all.
Cultural Influences
Military - 5
With resources so central to all else, defense of said resources is a necessity. In addition, imperialist clashes of the superpowers often result in skirmishes of one sort or another. With such conditions, the military flaunts itself in all facets of life. No city has a street where a man in uniform cannot be seen walking by, whether they be deployable soldiers or constables on the homefront.In addition to how most of the powers prefer a high defensive military presence, said military also gets a lot of exercise in general from the current general resource struggle. Each superpower is willing to take full advantage of their might whenever the need for a skirmish arises. And with the commonality of such skirmishes, it can always be expected that new recruitment campaigns begin shortly after the end of them. Whether it be offense or defense, there isn’t much downtime for those in the army.
Religion - 4
As a result of the seperated nature of the worlds nations, dozens of religions have sprung into existence, with each nation generally having its own system of beliefs. This is often a source of conflict between nations, as a rise in patriotism leads to most nations being fairly closed minded when it comes to other beliefs.Claud Gren’s religion is one where every emotion is considered a deity, and experiencing an emotion is seen as that deity touching the individual for a moment. This is one of the reasons for the nations glorification of emotions and of showing emotions, as attempting to hold in or hide emotions is seen as impious.
Technology - 4
We exist in a golden age of technology. At some corner of every neighborhood, someone is tinkering, hoping to break through the crowd and obtain the employ of their government, or patronship of those in power.Steam is the major power source for technology, with nations accessing massive underground reservoirs to provide the water needed to power themselves. The use of steam as a source of power makes travel difficult, as airships need to carry enough of it to power themselves, requiring them to make frequent stops to replenish themselves. However, water is plentiful in most places for it to be very cheap.
As a result of the complex needs to efficiently use the steam as a power source, many inventions and products that utilize it have functions closer to contraptions than standard mechanisms.
Arts and Culture - 3↑
With conflict between the superpowers escalating, patriotism is on the rise and these nations’ cultures are flourishing in defiance of one another.In Claud Gren, the culture is one of bright colors, building are often vibrantly colored, covered with banners and decorations, or both. The architecture of the city is reminiscent of the Rococo style, with a focus on elegance and curving shapes rather than harsh edges. The nation has recently begun to embrace the performing arts, with plays and concert halls being a frequent source of entertainment for its citizens. The people embrace a culture of expression and passion, where one's feelings are put out in the open. As a result arguments, both verbal and physical, are common and grievances are usually settled immediately - and sometimes permanently - in duels.
The Azure Coalition indulges in what they call Game of Houses. Everything is for political gain. Even among the lower classes, politics is politics and they all have their own agendas to push. Information is power, even currency at times, and inferences come out of even the simplest acts. Many outsiders find it nauseating and impossible to live with, but the the coalition thrives on it, both government and society.
Montagane’s main source of culture is mainly on the middle and upper class levels. The nation is built with a french flavor. Main colors seem to lean towards a white/white-gray palette. As for the culture of performing arts, it is a very popular entertainment industry within the nation. Like other places, concerts and theatre are the most common. Even on occasion, old classics from the days gone will be used/performed for the audience out of vintage value. They are also starting to rediscover the art of movies, which the ability to previously do so was lost when contact with electricity became lost through the migration from the dust. Currently, the people of Montagane have begun to figure out how to project films with the newer electricity sources they have.